Scientists Say We Are Practicing Ecological Homicide: We Must Protect the Pollinators!

If you’ve ever been lucky enough to feel a butterfly land delicately on your shoulder, you probably were mesmerized with its fragility and beauty, but you probably never thought it would signify the possible end of humanity as we know it. The annual migration of millions of monarch butterflies from Mexico to the US to help pollinate countless crops could be coming to an end. Through RoundUp Ready chemicals, we have decimated their natural habitat, and now a long list of scientists, environmentalists, artists, and citizens are urging the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the US to do something about it – NOW.

If we don’t act swiftly, we will be practicing ecological homicide. Without pollinators, we have no food. Without food – well, you get the picture. Urging President Obama of the US, Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, we can end this genocidal and ecological nightmare. They plan to meet in Mexico next week to discuss the economy, trade and other issues. But without these miraculous creatures, there will be no economy.

Are we really going to let a couple of corporate bullies forever destroy our planet. Food economics are the most important economics?

“A handful of corporations—producers of seeds, processors of meat and milk, and grocery retailers—now dominate most aspects of the food system, giving them enormous power to control markets and pricing, and enabling them to influence food and agricultural regulations. The largest of these agribusinesses are practically monopolies, controlling what consumers get to eat, what they pay for groceries and what prices farmers receive for their crops and livestock.”

Monarch butterfly numbers have been dwindling for years, and now they are on the verge of extinction in North America. The eradication of milkweed plants by RoundUp (glyphosate) in primarily GMO corn and GMO soy crops is the largest contributor to monarch colony decline.

“It is ecological genocide,” Homero Aridjis, a prominent Mexican poet and advocate for the butterfly, said in an interview. “By killing the plant, you are killing the monarch butterfly. If they don’t stop the destruction of the milkweed, in a few years the migratory phenomenon could collapse.”

“The onslaught of chemical agriculture … is altering the entire food chain,” said Lincoln Brower, a research professor of biology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia and one of the world’s top experts on the monarch. “I think the extraordinary, rapid decline of the monarch butterfly is the canary in the coal mine.”

Two Nobel Laureates, and more than 100 well-known academics have signed a letter asking North American leaders to start planting milkweed along butterfly migratory routes as soon as possible, and to discontinue use of glyphosate. Will you join them?

Christina Sarich is a humanitarian and freelance writer helping you to Wake up Your Sleepy Little Head, and See the Big Picture. Her blog is Yoga for the New World. Her latest book is Pharma Sutra: Healing the Body And Mind Through the Art of Yoga.